I just got back from a 10 day poker Bonanza in Vegas (Aug 25 to Sept 4). AVP was a big help in game selection so here’s some pay-forward to those heading to Vegas: a trip report with no bad beat stories (that I’m sure nobody wants to hear):

First off I should say that I don’t pretend to be a great Hold’em player. I would consider myself to be a solid player who, like everybody, gets a good run of cards once in a while, and my share of run-downs. I’ve been playing for about a year now – starting with winning a satellite into the BC poker championship last November – and have been playing 1-2 NL at my local casino once a week or so since then (and had amassed a $6,000 stake for a trip to Vegas). Like I said, I think I’m a solid player, not great, but with a good attitude. Poker is just for fun for me. The poker culture in Vegas pretty serious and was a bit too heavy for me at times. I wonder if winning at the table over the long run can assuage surreal nature of Vegas and the cerebral carnage of gambling. I met a lot of young guys trying to make a living at it and I wonder just how many manage to make a happy life from it. Yes, I think that a good player can grind out a living, but is it a happy life? I wish them (and you) the best and hope that people stay grounded in what makes a good life for them. After all, it's a game, it should be fun.

Myself, I managed to have a great vacation wihtout losing my shirt. I flew down from Vancouver (Canada) using air miles and stayed at Caesars Palace for ten nights (in the palace tower, on a promotion deal 140/night). Caesars is a nice hotel with good food, nice pool, sexy nightlife and a good poker tournament scene. I don’t know that I’de recommend staying at Caesars at the regular rate but if you can get into the palace tower at a reduced rate it’s definitely worth it. A typical day for me was to get up at the crack of 10:00, head to be buffet for breakfast/brunch, then hang out at the pool for an hour or so, maybe see some sights and then play poker into the wee hours.

Before a got the tournament bug I mostly played cash games at Caesars, Bally’s and Paris. These rooms are pretty much as described/advertised on AVP. Paris I think is the softest game I found: nothing more than 10 or so tables roped off from the casino. On any given day I’d find a few solid players but mostly weak players. For NL, Paris only spreads a 1-2 game so there’s not a lot of money to be made but if you’re patient and can put in the hours one can make wages there. Bally’s is a small step up both in terms of experience and players. A few of the tables have automatic shufflers although Bally’s rarely spreads a 2-5 game. Again, the competition at Bally’s is generally below average and if you’re inclined to grind you can make money here. I like to stab at a lot of pots so these aren’t the best types of games for me. Weaker players don’t seem to know when to get out of a hand – some just refuse to budge when they have over cards – you’ve got to dumb down the game and be able to show these kids of players a hand. At any rate, I’d put Bally’s and Paris in roughly the same class of poker experience: the roped off areas of the casinos attracts lots of weak players, OK dealers, OK management, OK games if you’re willing to play patient, simple, straight-ahead poker. Contrary to popular the popular wisdom of “make them pay to draw”, after many hours of trying to push players off there flush draw I realized that a lot of players simply won’t lay down 4-to-a-flush, no matter what you bet. I’m not say don’t make them pay to draw, just bear in mind that some people just don’t know when to quit.

I’d put Caesars and Bellagio in roughly the same class of poker experience, although I found management at Caesars to be friendly whereas at Bellagio they were downright snobby. Bellagio gets an A+ for comfort for their chairs which are very comfy; whereas a lot of the chairs at Caesars in the cash room have broken wheels. I found it hard to get comfortable at the Caesars cash games. The competition at both rooms is fairly tough at the 2-5 NL games.

Tournaments:

After dabbling in cash games for a couple of days I decided to give tournaments a try and never looked back. I think the tournaments at Caesars are the best value that I found. Caesars runs three tournaments a day (at 12:00, 7:00 and 11:00). These tournaments have reasonable levels at 40 minutes which gives you enough time to maneuver. All of their tournaments have a strange re-buy where you get 3-time as much chips as the initial buy-in for about half the cost. Everybody re-buys. These are normally not all-in fests until 5th level. I played in a lot of these and ended up chopping the prize twice (once for $599 and once for an unspecified amount, wink wink, see below). A couple of things I leaned from playing the Caesars tournaments: first, because of the re-buy it doesn’t make much sense to get involved in hands until the third level. There just aren’t enough chips in play. And second, it doesn’t make sense to play to win if the pot is going to be chopped anyway. Out of the roughly 10 tournaments I played, I chopped twice, went out early twice, and finished just out of the chop the other six times. In hindsight, if I had played tighter with a good chip stack when getting close to chopping time I would have probably chopped the pot another four or five times. I guess the lesson is here is that if you are playing to win then don’t take a chop, if you are playing to chop then don’t take chances. I leaned that one the hard way.

Another thing to keep in mind with respect to paying taxes on winnings. My understanding is that Harrah’s casinos makes players who win more than $600 fill out a sign a tax form. If the prize pool is such that it can be chopped so that everybody get $599 then nobody pays taxes. I’m Canadian so any tournament winnings above $600 automatically have 30% withheld by the casino. I’m told that some people from other countries have been known find a US citizen who is willing to put the winnings their name for a fee.

That’s it for me; this trip report is cooked. I’m back to work tomorrow and kids are back in school. I’ll try to satellite into the BC Poker championship again this year. The prize pool is up to 3.5 million this year and should bring probably 900 players to the RiverRock casino in Vancouver. It should be fun if I can get in for cheap. As for Vegas, I had a blast even though I ended up losing roughly $500 all told in entry fees and cash games (but won it back in craps). I drank like a fish and got a good tan. If you’re going to Vegas, do eat well and see a good show. I saw Mystere from front row center; it’s wonderful. Remember, have fun, it’s only a game.